Jerzy Janowicz(July 11, 2013) Jerzy Janowicz just played the best tournament of his career. He reached the semifinals of Wimbledon, the best result of his career. He reached a career-high ranking of World No. 17. He has a massive serve, good ground game, and already moves well enough to be a top player. The whole tennis world is expecting great things from Janowicz in the near future.

But I’m not ready to expect much from him just yet.

Am I being unfair? Am I being ridiculous? After all, the entire tennis world just saw him take Wimbledon by storm. We saw him produce tennis on a high level. Why wouldn’t I expect us to see it on a consistent basis?

The answer lies in that very question. Janowicz has developed the game to be a great player. He has the talent to be a great player? So why is he only now breaking in to the top 20?

Yes, every player has to start from somewhere. Every player gets better and better until he can reach the top of the game. But Janowicz has had this talent and ability for more than just two weeks. He played this well in reaching the final of the Masters tournament in Paris last November. So why was Janowicz not able to reach a single semifinal in the 7 months between those two tournaments?

I will be fair. Janowicz also played very well in the Masters tournament in Rome, beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet before falling to Roger Federer. Even that doesn’t change the point I am trying to make.

Janowicz is a top 20 player right now, but he has done that by playing great tennis for three weeks out of the past year. He currently has 2,154 ATP ranking points. A combined 1,345 of those came from Paris and Wimbledon. He would not even be in the top 50 without those. If you ignore Rome as well he would fall out of the top 100 at the end of this week.

So what is my point? Paris, Rome, and Wimbledon did happen. You can’t just ignore them. But the fact is that they say something. Janowicz made himself from a fringe top 100 player into a top 20 player in 4 weeks. But if Janowicz is going to reach the top 10 or top 5, or even No. 1 someday like people are expecting of him, he will have to compete at his best level for more than 4 weeks out of the year.

He has shown us that he has that level. He has shown us that he can sustain it for most of a tournament. But he is going to have to do it for a much larger chunk of the season. Otherwise, where he is now may very well be the highest he can get.

Poland's Jerzy Janowicz is shaking up the ATP World Tour with his explosive brand of power tennis.

No author of schoolboy fiction could have dreamed up what happened at The Championships in 1985, when Boris Becker broke all manner of records as the youngest champion, or in 2001, when Goran Ivanisevic became the titlist as a low-ranked wild card.

“I am an explosive character and a pure fighter”

Hailing from a nation that does not have a single grass court, Jerzy Janowicz is one victory away from reaching the Wimbledon final. Should the World No. 22 from Poland keep his emotions in check – just as Becker and Ivanisevic remarkably did in their golden summers – his second visit to the All England Club could earn him a shot at the sport's greatest prize.

Janowicz is a big-match player and a magnet for attention. His game and his personality demand it. “He likes to play in front of many people on big stadium courts,” Kim Tiilikainen, his coach, told ATPWorldTour.com. “He doesn’t look up to the big names. He actually gets pumped up playing the Top 10, as he thinks he can beat anyone.” At 6’8”, he moves incredibly well, possesses a huge serve (one was timed at 140 miles per hour last week) and forehand, a technically-sound backhand, soft hands and great creativity.

Janowicz“I am an explosive character and a pure fighter,” Janowicz told ATPWorldTour.com. “On court, during a match, I focus on every ball. I don’t need to play aesthetically well. The most important thing is to win matches.” In 2013, he has already compiled a 20-12 match record through the Wimbledon quarter-finals.

While Janowicz can be portrayed as moody and temperamental on the court, Tiilikainen says “he is a strong mind person with a good heart. You really need to know Jerzy well before you really know him.” His compatriot, Mariusz Fyrstenberg, insists that Janowicz’s personality has never changed since their first Davis Cup tie together at Minsk five years ago. Fyrstenberg gave ATPWorldTour.com an insight in to him off the court. “He is very funny guy.

“In Indian Wells [at the BNP Paribas Open], this year, we went to play golf. This was his first time on the course, so I tried to teach him all the basics about golf etiquette. But I forgot to tell him that he cannot drive his golf cart on to the green! So, I see from 200 yards, that he had parked just one metre away from the hole and is relaxing there. I then saw this woman come up and give him some advice. So when I got to the green, I asked ‘What did she tell you?’ He said, ‘Can you believe that the woman was teaching me how to drive?’

"It was like an awakening for him and he gained a lot of confidence"

“The stories are plenty, but I am certain it will be just a matter of time before he reaches the Top 10.” The mere fact that Janowicz is a contender at Wimbledon this year is remarkable.

Almost two years ago, Polish New Yorkers chipped in to buy him tennis shoes at the US Open, where he had finished as junior runner-up in 2007. Four months later, at No. 221 in the Emirates ATP Rankings he still had no sponsor. On occasions, in the past, he had slept in a car on trips at tournaments. His parents, Jerzy Sr. and Anna, both former professional volleyball players, were forced to sell their two sports shops. As little as 18 months ago, he could not afford flights to compete in the Australian Open qualifying.

He won his second ATP Challenger Tour title – and a first prize of €4,300 – at Rome in May 2012, as ATP World Tour glitterati descended on the Foro Italico for the Internazionali BNL d'Italia. His outlook as a professional tennis player had changed. “Everything changed in Rome,” said Tiilikainen. “He beat three players in the Top 100 and he stuck to his game style throughout the whole tournament. It all clicked in to place. It was like an awakening for him and he gained a lot of confidence.”JanowiczWhen Janowicz qualified for The Championships in 2012, as the World No. 136, he showed flashes of brilliance as a rare talent in reaching the third round. Just as Becker had done on his first visit in 1984. But it was not until he qualified for the BNP Paribas Masters at Paris, in November last year, that the giant firecracker exploded to ensure a dramatic end to a memorable season.

Just as Bjorn Borg observed between 10-20 daily rituals during his run of five straight Wimbledon titles, and Ivanisevic famously adopted three personas – bad, good and emergency Goran – more than 20 years later, Janowicz took some unusual steps in the French capital.

Requesting that his parents stay at home, Janowicz remained in the qualifiers €152-per-night hotel, the Novotel, a short walk from the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, with Tiilikainen. “There, I didn’t feel the pressure,” said Janowicz. “I barely ate or slept – only two to four hours a night, particularly after my wins over Murray and Tipsarevic. I only ate a croissant each morning at breakfast and then went off to train briefly [30 minutes], as usual, ahead of my matches.”

Remaining unshaven and using a “dirty, old bag” throughout the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament, Janowicz carved up Philipp Kohlschreiber, Marin Cilic, Andy Murray, Janko Tipsarevic and Gilles Simon by firing Becker-like serves, powerful forehands and displaying great disguise for drop shot winners on the indoor courts. Tiilikainen recalls, “Mid-afternoon he slept for around 20 minutes, as Jerzy likes to close his eyes for a while the day before a match.”

"When I did television interviews after Paris, it dawned on me what I had achieved"

By mid-week, a Polish rapper had even immortalised Janowicz in a song, "Bajka o Jerzyku czyli Niezwykłe Przygody Jerzego Janowicza w Paryżu" [Fairytale about Jerzyk – Remarakable adventures of Jerzy Janowicz in Paris]. By the time the Lodz native reached the final, “several TV vans were blocking the street next to my family home and Poland’s President [Bronislaw Komorowski] had been in touch.”

Tiilikainen, who is also Finland’s Davis Cup captain, said, “I just told him every day to go out there and enjoy every moment of it. His game was unpredictable, powerful, joyful and confident so there was no sense to take the risk and make him think of the opponents or tactics too much when it was all about him. He just played such a unique and strong game that the other players didn’t know what to do. You could see in many matches how his opponents got frustrated. There was no rhythm. His game was unpredictable and powerful; he was serving great and no one liked it.”

Janowicz, Ferrer, Paris November 2012Though he lost to David Ferrer in the title match, wacthed by 1.4 million Poles, Janowicz admits that “during the week, I lived more than all my life. When I did television interviews after Paris, it dawned on me what I had achieved. Until then, I didn’t think I would be that famous after just one week. I could not stop smiling.”

Ah, the smile. It was something that Tiilikainen immediately picked up on when he first met Janowicz. “I was quite amazed by his athleticism and the way he moved on the court. He had smooth strokes and a winning personality. You really didn’t have to be a great coach to realise that he had the potential and talent to do something big in tennis.”

Janowicz insists that this year he “wants to maintain a Top 30 ranking and improve all my strokes.” Tiilikainen agrees. “He doesn’t always look as if he is motivated to improve, if fans watch him in training, but he is and is ready to climb the rankings. The main focus for many years has been to work on the variation of his serve, length of his return, the execution of the short balls, the covering of the court, stepping in to the ball and his reactions.” This week, Janowicz is guaranteed to leave the All England Club with at least £400,000 ($605,854), more than one half of his entire career prize money to date. He may also soon revise his goals for the year.

Pete Sampras had inspired Janowicz to take up the sport. But the day Sampras, the seven-time former Wimbledon champion, retired, Janowicz also quit. “The day he retired, I asked my Mum, ‘What is the point in playing?’ I stopped for one day … and then returned! At that age you do silly things. Sampras inspired me to work hard to be a really good player, but my parents invested in me and I ensured that I worked hard to do myself and them justice.”

At The Championships this year, he is bidding to follow in the footsteps of his childhood idol. “It is unbelievable what is going on right now,” said 22-year-old Janowicz. Poland will come to a standstill when he plays.

Jerzy Janowicz(July 11, 2013) Jerzy Janowicz just played the best tournament of his career. He reached the semifinals of Wimbledon, the best result of his career. He reached a career-high ranking of World No. 17. He has a massive serve, good ground game, and already moves well enough to be a top player. The whole tennis world is expecting great things from Janowicz in the near future.

But I’m not ready to expect much from him just yet.

Am I being unfair? Am I being ridiculous? After all, the entire tennis world just saw him take Wimbledon by storm. We saw him produce tennis on a high level. Why wouldn’t I expect us to see it on a consistent basis?

The answer lies in that very question. Janowicz has developed the game to be a great player. He has the talent to be a great player? So why is he only now breaking in to the top 20?

Yes, every player has to start from somewhere. Every player gets better and better until he can reach the top of the game. But Janowicz has had this talent and ability for more than just two weeks. He played this well in reaching the final of the Masters tournament in Paris last November. So why was Janowicz not able to reach a single semifinal in the 7 months between those two tournaments?

I will be fair. Janowicz also played very well in the Masters tournament in Rome, beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet before falling to Roger Federer. Even that doesn’t change the point I am trying to make.

Janowicz is a top 20 player right now, but he has done that by playing great tennis for three weeks out of the past year. He currently has 2,154 ATP ranking points. A combined 1,345 of those came from Paris and Wimbledon. He would not even be in the top 50 without those. If you ignore Rome as well he would fall out of the top 100 at the end of this week.

So what is my point? Paris, Rome, and Wimbledon did happen. You can’t just ignore them. But the fact is that they say something. Janowicz made himself from a fringe top 100 player into a top 20 player in 4 weeks. But if Janowicz is going to reach the top 10 or top 5, or even No. 1 someday like people are expecting of him, he will have to compete at his best level for more than 4 weeks out of the year.

He has shown us that he has that level. He has shown us that he can sustain it for most of a tournament. But he is going to have to do it for a much larger chunk of the season. Otherwise, where he is now may very well be the highest he can get.

This is good agrument to discuss. He has to do well on everyday basis, not just for big tournament. He is getting better, however a lot of areas are still waiting for him to solve. I see a lot of matches he lost this year, was done by himself. He made a lot of poor decision on his drop shot approach, basically made it at wrong time which always end of losing that critical point.

JJ looks to be an interesting character.Can he maintain his personality & style while continuing to improve his game?He seems to be rather free spirited on & off the court.Harnessing that talent so that he produces consistent, winning tennis, will be a trick indeed!

JJ looks to be an interesting character.Can he maintain his personality & style while continuing to improve his game?He seems to be rather free spirited on & off the court.Harnessing that talent so that he produces consistent, winning tennis, will be a trick indeed!

He's doing great.

Making the SF of any slam is a great learning experience for anyone just moving up the rankings.

JJ looks to be an interesting character.Can he maintain his personality & style while continuing to improve his game?He seems to be rather free spirited on & off the court.Harnessing that talent so that he produces consistent, winning tennis, will be a trick indeed!

He's doing great.

Making the SF of any slam is a great learning experience for anyone just moving up the rankings.

The HC season is coming up quick so more updates will be coming soon.

I guess the big question is- do you think his character will prevent him from playing higher percentage tennis?

? # 2 Will this prevent him from winning enough matches to develop the confidence necessary to crack (and stay) in the top 10?

Personally, I think I'd use a soft approach in coaching this guy, let him find his own way, and develop a bit more creativity. I think he's 'special'.

JJ looks to be an interesting character.Can he maintain his personality & style while continuing to improve his game?He seems to be rather free spirited on & off the court.Harnessing that talent so that he produces consistent, winning tennis, will be a trick indeed!

He's doing great.

Making the SF of any slam is a great learning experience for anyone just moving up the rankings.

The HC season is coming up quick so more updates will be coming soon.

I guess the big question is- do you think his character will prevent him from playing higher percentage tennis?

? # 2 Will this prevent him from winning enough matches to develop the confidence necessary to crack (and stay) in the top 10?

Personally, I think I'd use a soft approach in coaching this guy, let him find his own way, and develop a bit more creativity. I think he's 'special'.

I don't know is he Safin-Type of player or John McEnroe type of player. It is why I am looking for Hamburg Tournament. Can this Jerzy do well on regular tournament.